journey report Sybe de Vos | nieuwsletter via e-mail | youthcamp | new families | pen

Journey report to Romania of Sybe de Vos
April 2 up to April 11 - 2002

Wouko and I leave home at four a clock in the morning to Germany. After a long drive with once in a while a short brake, we reach the village and we spent the night in Berettyoujfalu in Hungary. The next day we are on our way at six 'o clock in the morning to the Romanian border. Passing the border was easy and also the trip and at thirty minutes after nine we are sitting in the room of Nico and Silvia Stroica's home. Nico and Silvia live in the county village Galsa, not far away from the city Arad. We look at the greenhouses which Nico has built. Nico grows paprika- and tomatoplants and later on he will sell those plants at the market. Nico and Silvia do all kinds of things to earn some money. Nico makes his own instruments for his work and Sylvia is sewing shoes and with the money she earns, she bought an incubator to brood the chicken eggs.

At half past one, we go for a long trip to Brasov, a sombre city at the feet of the Karpaten in the east side of Romania. At our journey the temperature is going up. Everywhere there are people working on the land. It all looks nice but on the Romanian roads, you cannot drive fast. After a drive of 400 km at seven a clock in the evening we arrive at Brasov and Dimitru Marcu en Gabi Vansca receive us friendly.

The next day we go to the Metro with Dimitru en Gabi and some others, to buy the food for the food parcels. With Vasile - a man of the Biserica Pentecostala (Pentecost church) - we buy an aggregate, financed by the foundation. It will be use at summer camp in July and can also used for the church.

Back at the Marcu family, we make the food parcels. After we finish, together with Marcu and Gabi we go and bring the food parcels to the twelve families who are supported by the foundation. Every family gets one box.

We drive from apartment to apartment and walk through dark stairways and dirty passages and stand in very small elevators and mostly very small apartments where the mother or the father or sometimes the children open the door for us. The circumstances in which these families live, are minimal within our western view and sometimes even worse.

The next day we have a camp meeting with Gabi, Esther and Florin, the youth leader of the church. All ins and outs about the summer camp of the youth for the coming summer are talked through. After that, Vasile - a man from the Pentecostal church - drives us to the farm from the church, where they will camp this summer. The place is very nice but also very primitive. In Brasov they show a new part of the church where guests can stay. In the evening Wouko spoke together with the comittee of the church about the problems in the families. All the help will in the future be done in cooperation with this church.

On sunday morning we visit the Pentecostal church and next morning we say goodbye to Brasov to go to the west of Romania, in order to leave the country again at the Romanian-Hungarian border. We stop in Abda to make an appointment at a pension for the youth trip this summer. After that we drive to Eggerdingen in Austria to stay for one night with Roel Koops. The youth will also sleep here in July when they will be on their way back to the Netherlands. Together with Roel we talked and prayed. This was the end of our journey to Romania.

Sybe de Vos

Newsletter by E-mail
As you probably already know the organisation does have an internetsite of its own:
www.vriendenvoorroemenie.org
You will find information about the organisation in three languages (Dutch, English and Romanian).
If you have an internet connection we ask you to let us know your e-mail address, so that we can sent you our newsletter in the future.
You can sent your e-mail address to: info@vriendenvoorroemie.org

Youth camp
The next journey to Romania is from 15 July up to 27 July 2002.
The youth celleaders from the 'Evangelische Gemeenschap Hoogeveen' will travel together with the Snijder family to a summer camp farm in Brasov in Romania, to meet the youth of the families who are supported by our organisation. They will stay together in this period.
We ask you to pray for these youth and their leaders in that period.

New families
The organisation decides to support more families in consideration with the church in Brasov.
These families are:

• Ursulica family
  the father is a good plasterer and works in Italy for a period. Now he has no work anymore and they live of children's allowance of € 30,- a month. They have no other payment. They have 7 children and live in a nice apartment that is decorated by the father.
  
• Borghino family
  10 children, the youngest is 1 month and the eldest is 14 years old.
  
• Manole family
  this family have 7 children and 1 of the children come to the summer camp.
  
• Ciobanu family
  this family have 9 children. The eldest daughter is married with an American.
  
• Gordas family
  this family have 8 children. 6 boys and 2 girls.

Pen
With the newsletter (on paper) we have distributed a pen with the logo and internet address of the organisation. The board of the organisation wishes you blessed holidays.